New Beginnings and Reinventions

Two minutes ago I was hand sewing ribbon onto a belt under the watchful eye of my Chihuahua. My house is completely silent except for the melting snow dripping on the deck outside. My 3 ½ year old is napping with our Terrier in our bed. Now, I’m writing my first blog entry. It’s not what I would’ve expected I’d love, but I do - my new found appreciation for quiet, handiwork, (and writing?! Oh man.) I guess I was inspired, as I have been by so many things, people and experiences lately. Inspired to embrace creativity I’ve thought for so long I lacked, inspired to think outside the box of my so-called-usual life, inspired to download fonts I love for no other reason than that they are lovely and make me happy, inspired to scour thrift stores for vintage fabrics and sew up a storm, inspired to share words with friends via email this morning, words from another blog I love to read that gave me a smile and a lift as I started my day and week.

So this is it. The beginning of my blog. I envision this as a way to share my creative process, my experiences, and the things I love. I also want to share my inspirations – inspirations for motherhood, creativity, beauty, friendship, marriage, love and LIFE...all with a sprinkle of joy!

One of today’s inspirations came from a fellow mom at Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) class this morning…her pastor had spoken about capacity level. Essentially, know what your capacity level is and don’t “fill up” to the top because “life suddenlys” will occur. You know, that moment when you thought your day was perfectly planned, or thought you were about to be on time for the first time in a month, but then life suddenly threw you a curve ball. You need capacity to deal successfully with these moments, events, curveballs! Our licensed parent educator took it a step further and suggested that perhaps it’s even our job as a parent to model for kids what it looks like NOT to operate at a deficit so much of the time. Personally, reserving some capacity means limiting my/our schedule to allow some minutes, hours and days that are unscheduled. What does it mean to you?

In closing, here’s a link to the lovely way I began my day today – an excerpt fromPeggy O’Mara’s The Way Back Home posted on Soulemama’s website (one of my favorite blogs, BTW.) I shared this with some friends this morning, and now I share it with the rest of you. Hugs!

"...understand that to nurture and love others with the grace you desire means taking care of yourself and cultivating your own inner harmony. Inner harmony grows not by finding ways to get away from your child, but by giving yourself the gift of a hot bath at the end of a long day, reading a book of poetry, talking to a friend on the phone, taking a nap, crying, getting a massage, having a day off from cleaning and ooking, staying in your pajamas all day, swimming, going out to eat, or attending a conference. Do something for yourself as you give. Learn to laugh at yourself and not take yourself so seriously."
~Peggy O'Mara, The Way Back Home